Banking

Industry representatives swiftly rejected the Treasury Department's assertion that new legislation is needed to protect small-business owners.

If alternative small-business lenders don't get engaged in the regulatory dialogue, they risk letting a few bad apples determine their fate.

After two failed attempts to find a buyer, New England Bancorp in Massachusetts agreed to close all four of its offices before selling to Independent Bank. Independent ultimately decided to keep one branch open.

Wells Fargo is starting a program to offer small businesses online loans in as soon as one day, targeting territory occupied by On Deck and LendingClub.

Daniel Schrider, chief executive of Sandy Spring Bancorp in Olney, Md., discusses a controversial change to loan-loss accounting rules — known as the Current Expected Credit Loss standard, or CECL — and why it will be a burden for community banks.

The steady stream of bad news continues for online marketplace lenders.

Sunshine Bancorp in Plant City, Fla., has agreed to buy FBC Bancorp in Orlando, Fla.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday capped off a nearly yearlong inquiry into the burgeoning marketplace lending industry with a policy paper that recommends increased transparency and customer protections while also highlighting the sector's potential for expanding credit access.

U.S. consumers who lost money to a Canada-based debt and mortgage relief scam will receive nearly $1.87 million.

It is imperative for regulators and lawmakers to approach the online small business loan market with care and an understanding of how these lenders expand access to credit.

State officials in California have asked top online lending firms a series of probing questions regarding their compliance with laws and regulations dealing with referral fees, bank partnerships, fair lending and other sensitive issues.

We should all understand now that pure gain-on-sale marketplace lending businesses, like LendingClub, are inherently unstable.

A dozen directors were re-elected at Middleburg Financial in Virginia despite a protest from the company's biggest investor.

The abrupt resignation of the firm's founder and CEO, under a cloud, seems likely to fan investors' growing fears about the marketplace lending sector. It could also hasten regulatory scrutiny.

PL Capital, a big investor in Banc of California, is proposing that the Irvine company adopt majority, rather than plurality voting, for the election of directors.

Corezoid is courting the U.S. banking industry with a cloud-based solution its founder developed while working at a Ukraine bank.

Boston Private Financial Holdings is expanding its footprint in California, opening a new office in Los Angeles on June 1. The company will have 35 offices nationwide, including 14 on the West Coast.

Fed up with the hassles of applying for a multitude of state licenses and relying on bank partners, fintech firms are increasingly interested in applying for a national bank charter — and federal regulators are considering ways to accommodate them.

A debt collection agency will pay civil penalties and be required to adopt new procedures to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

State Bank Financial in Atlanta just hired a lending team that will take its SBA lending operation to the next level. The moves comes as the SBA reports a record number of 7(a) loans.